Two-and-a-half months after Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman traveled to North Carolina to see then-free-agent Peyton Manning work out, the 49ers coach, unprompted, revisited the team's interest in the Broncos quarterback Wednesday.

Harbaugh's big points:

-- The 49ers were "evaluating" Manning, not pursuing or "flirting" with him. "It's silly and it's untrue. It's phony," he said.

-- Even if the 49ers had signed Manning, they still planned to re-sign Alex Smith and let the quarterbacks battle for the starting job.

-- The 49ers weren't about to match the five-year, $90 million contract Manning received from Denver. "We would not have given any player that was out there in free agency a sixth of our salary cap, and let six or seven of our own guys go here," Harbaugh said.

What was Harbaugh's motivation for dredging up a moldy story line? It's possible it was to again publicly affirm his belief in Smith, who acknowledged he was surprised the subject had been unearthed. Speaking after Harbaugh met with the media, Smith reiterated that his head coach was up front about the team's interest in Manning and said he was prepared to compete for the starting spot.

"Alex Smith is our quarterback, was our quarterback, and we had every intention of always bringing him back," Harbaugh said. "There would be no circumstance that we would have let Alex Smith go. Now, were we out there seeing, evaluating if we could have them both? Heck, yeah. And you evaluate that, you eliminate the possibility."

Harbaugh did confirm Manning called him on March 19 to let him know he'd decided to sign with Denver instead of the 49ers or Titans.

The phone call suggests the 49ers were "evaluating" Manning until the moment he signed with Denver. In the end, Harbaugh's surprising detour only inspired more questions.

Not surprisingly, he saw things differently.

"Hopefully that sets the record straight," Harbaugh said. "And you don't have to keep reporting the silliness and the phoniness."